The human acquired immunodeficiency viruses HIV-1 and HIV-2 are retrolentiviruses, which are viruses found in a large number of African primates. The origin of HIV-2 appears to be clear on account of its strong homology with the Sooty Mangabey (West Africa) virus. However, the origins of HIV-1 are less clear. Type 1 HIV viruses have been subdivided into three groups, i.e. the M (major) group, an O (outlier) group and N group (non-M, non-O). Each group appears to represent a separate transmission of a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) from nonhuman primates into humans; groups M and N appear to have originated in chimpanzees (Pan troglydytes troglodytes). The origin of group O is unknown; the closest known nonhuman virus to group O is an SIV identified in western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) however, group O and SIVgor form genetically distinct lineages. In August 2009, Plantier, et al. reported the identification and partial genome sequence of HIV-1 group P (hereinafter “RBF168”), a virus that is most closely related to and that appears to have originated from SIVgor (Plantier J-C, Leoz M, Dickerson J E, et al. (2009) Nature Medicine 15:871-872). To date just this single group P virus has been reported. However, the genome of this new variant was not fully sequenced. The genetic diversity of HIV-1 has the potential to impact blood screening, diagnostics, therapeutic monitoring, resistance to antiretroviral agents, vaccine development, and pathogenesis of HIV. The demonstration of new variants is important for developing sufficiently sensitive and specific reagents for detecting HIV infections, that is to say reagents which do not lead to false-negative or false-positive results, and for developing compositions which are protective in regard to HIV-1 subtypes which do not belong either to the M group, the O group or to the N group.